[Please note that the views presented by individual contributors are not necessarily representative of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. ATCA conducts collective Socratic dialogue on global opportunities and threats.]

2012 is a watershed year in the history of humankind. The cumulative effects of Self-Assembling Dynamic Networks or SADNs are not only changing the very nature of our existence but also the perception of each other via our unprecedented super-connectivity across communities and continents. Does this herald the end of the status quo? No-thing appears to remain the same as this contagion-of-transparency and flat-hierarchies spreads faster and faster: accelerating, assimilating and absorbing every aspect of our joint and inter-linked global existence.

Top Ten Trends Towards A Golden Age & A Wisdom Based Global Economy

The Irresistible Force of SADNs

From global insurrection to implications for foreign policy and from just-in-time supply-chain disruptions to the out-of-control bubbling systemic risks -- not least in the financial and geo-political strategic arena -- the cumulative effects of Self-Assembling Dynamic Networks or SADNs can no longer be ignored. If we seek to ensure our antiquated organisational structures are not overwhelmed by sudden unintended accelerations, we need to realign, reorganise and restructure our individual priorities, family life-styles, communities, businesses, NGO frameworks and operations immediately to address and to benefit from the clear metamorphosis in collective consciousness that is now visibly underway. The cumulative asymmetric risks of not doing so are likely to render our existing structures utterly obsolete in 2012 and beyond.

Key Features

The key highlights of the Self-Assembling Dynamic Networks (SADNs) follow:

Beyond the top ten attributes, the automatic lack of definition and anonymity ensures the resilience of SADNs in the event of hostile force being deployed by hierarchical authorities to eradicate them.

Top Ten Trends Towards A Golden Age & A Wisdom Based Global Economy

1. In parallel with Self-Assembling Dynamic Networks, the synchronised combination of the Fuel, Food and Finance aggregate demands -- 3Fs -- is accelerating disruptive change across the rising global population at over seven billion. This disruptive change is amplified by anytime, anywhere communications and it is bringing about a transparent transformation in humanity's approach towards each other and the efficient management of key resources including human talent, skill-sets, energy, raw materials and waste management.

2. The age of ignorance is coming to an end via this newly manifest transparency as humanity realises that every action has a reaction and all production, distribution and consumption has an externalised and internalised cost associated with it. Not all costs can be represented in profit and loss terms immediately but become evident in quality-of-life and financial debt servicing costs over decades and even centuries. While many consequences are asymmetrically reversible, some are completely irreversible. It may take a few years to cut down a forest to grow food for fuel and decades to grow the forest back. Similarly, it may take a couple of months to save a few banks from going bust in the aftermath of a global financial crisis, but it may take decades to bring momentum back to national economies now burdened by that excessive debt.

3. The 3Fs and their consequences -- socio-economic and geo-political black swans -- are the result of the mismanagement and misalignment of expectations. The present socio-economic trajectory, which is ultimately incapable of sustaining seven to eight billion people on the planet at median living standards of the West -- as Asia, Africa and Latin America aspire to live at equivalent prosperity -- is going to be drastically modified in 2012 and beyond as false expectations are confronted and replaced with entirely new and holistic ones. There is much room for humanitarianism in this coming global crisis.

4. Asymmetric threats are multiplying and so are asymmetric solutions given the ingenuity of humanity for re-invention and innovation when pushed into a corner by multiple crises. From linear processes, which are essentially about fragmented production, consumption and waste generation, we are evolving towards non-linear and circular processes that have pervasive energy efficiency and holistic recycling as well as recyclability at their design core. Expect non-linear asymmetric solutions -- highly imaginative, inventive and innovative 'killer' applications -- in the area of group thinking; incentivisation models; continuous education and training paradigms; new science and the release of hitherto suppressed technologies; radical management philosophies; focus on ultra energy efficiency; alternative sources of energy; drastic waste minimisation; total waste processing; and pervasive recycling regimes. Much of the new production and consumption methodologies are going to focus on utilising recycled and recyclable materials with extremely high energy efficiency as opposed to virgin raw materials and large quantities of energy and natural resources -- water, air and land -- generating excessive waste for generations to come. There will be increased reliance on local sourcing as the global 3Fs continue to bite ever harder in late 2012 and beyond.

5. The number of asymmetric solutions deployed collectively in dealing with the 3Fs is becoming the 'gold measure' of resilience for that individual, family, community, organisation, corporation, region and nation state. Expect taxation in avant garde governments to evolve dynamically to act as a penalty on laggards, who do not adopt the 'gold measures' swiftly.

6. The boundaries of the sovereign nation state are being superseded by trans-national Self Assembling Dynamic Networks (SADNs) -- distributed movements and ideologies -- and by the sovereign individual in many asymmetric ways as they exploit arbitrage opportunities. The boundary-less environment is creating a globally inter-dependent matrix, as if in quantum entanglement. The 3Fs are propelling humanity towards longevity and sustainability based on holistic thinking and collective good. This disruptive change will have extremely beneficial long term consequences for humanity and despite the short term pain, it may usher in a Golden Age of individual and global transformation and Unity Consciousness. We are moving away from the paradigm of the "Clash of Civilisations" towards a "Semblance of Harmony" amongst a "Family of Nations" as the political era in which violence has flowed from ideological conflict now begins to draw towards a step-by-step close. This Golden Age is likely to be characterised by a Wisdom based Global Economy within which it becomes difficult for large financial institutions and multi-nationals to continue to manipulate the political system to their advantage via multi-million dollar lobby groups that are increasingly exposed in the now transparent arena. The arrival of this new transparency is a key attribute of elevated or higher consciousness, which creates alignment with the ultimate truth.

7. The characteristics of the Golden Age are accelerated enlightenment, renaissance and reinvention of the individual's thinking, societal group think and the redesign of linear industrial age systems, hierarchies and support mechanisms towards automatically slip-streaming Self-Assembling Dynamic Networks (SADNs) that are seamless, streamlined, non-linear and circular and can come together in a leader-less fashion via individuals, communities, organisations, corporations or indeed government agencies. In the recent past, the Western world -- Europe and North America -- had a huge lead and capacity to reinvent. Faced with the 3Fs, which are affecting poorer nations the most, Asia, Latin America and Africa are also becoming sources of asymmetric solutions in the 21st century. Given their large-scale demographics, China and India are likely to emerge as natural leaders in finding global asymmetric solutions for the 3Fs. Japan's fantastic lead in energy efficiency is worthy of being copied, matched and eventually surpassed across many parts of the world, thereby lowering global energy demand substantially.

8. The traditional and knee jerk responses from established governance organisations and regulatory institutions are not necessarily working and may indeed exacerbate the effects of the 3Fs. The modern solidarity society, ie, the nation state dependent society, which evolved in Europe and North America especially after the second world war is now being severely tested by the challenges of the post financial crisis world. On the present trajectory, the support mechanisms are capable of bankrupting many Western nation states which have hitherto been amongst the top economic powers. In the last two decades or so, many arcane nation state systems have survived on the back of Chinese and Indian export of deflation and a relatively low cost of energy. As the 3Fs remove those crutches, there will have to be socially and politically acceptable reformation. The model which will evolve will have non-linear asymmetric characteristics and point towards sustainability as measured against the 3Fs.

9. The step-by-step "Golden Age" revolution has just begun and it has a long way to go as humanity realises its full potential by integrating the physical, intellectual and spiritual dimensions to build a non-linear and circular economic model that produces near zero waste and consumes responsibly whilst being conscious of the consequences to the global environment and upon itself. The concept that the environment, ie, the habitat and humanity are not separate from each other and are essentially one is going to gain ground as we seek to find asymmetric solutions for the 3Fs. What we do to others we do unto ourselves. With the elimination of duality, and confrontation of one-ness, how easy can it be to wage war with mutually assured destruction in this new world of "Unity Consciousness"? There is also the wisdom of another great spiritual poet -- Saadi -- to be considered:

"The human family is one body with many parts; creations arising from one unseen essence; any harm to any part summons an awakening a dis-ease and a healing response from all parts; those who fail to feel the pain of others cannot be called truly human!"

10. The Golden Age's triumph will be the delivery of individual, societal and world harmony albeit with massive obstacles and hurdles along the way, initiated as an extreme metamorphosis by the 3Fs and their convergence beginning in the latter part of 2012 and going beyond in the decades to come.

2012 is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the beginning of a brand new beginning! Welcome to the start of this transparent Golden Age!

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